ALL I DO.
{ irl }

!! TW : homophobia , mentions of domestic violence / abuse!!

"who wants to go first?" amelia asks after everyone else who is left at the party joins the group in the living room.

amelia, niola, and matt are all sharing one couch. chris and camille are taking up the largest couch in the room, refusing to let anyone sit with them. while nick is awkwardly sitting beside two guys – james and lucas.

james is known for two things. he's amelia's twin brother, and he's a complete bully toward anyone who is willing to let him pick on them. on the other hand, lucas is known for being super loud and proud about his opinions. as well as being unapologetically bisexual.

splayed across the scratchy rug on the floor are two girls. mia and elaina. mia is super antisocial and nobody knows anything about her – well, except for her girlfriend elaina. and elaina is the complete opposite of mia. she's super loud and outspoken. she likes to stand up for people who fall victim to james' bullying because that's how she and mia met.

"i will!" elaina shrieks, raising her hand excitedly. her enthusiasm makes james scoff. elaina shoots him a glare before ignoring him and asking her girlfriend the first question. "mia, truth or dare?"

"truth." mia replies without a second thought.

"is it true that you love me?" elaina asks her with a sly smirk, causing mia to burry her head in her hands, wanting nothing more than to hide away from all of the attention she's getting due to elaina.

"of course it is." mia answers honestly, giving elaina a peck on the cheek. "we've been dating for three years, why wouldn't i love you?"

matt watches the couple with a smile on his face, unsure of how people can be so confident about who they love. mia and elaina just declared their love for each other in front of eight other people, carelessly. whereas matt can't even tell niola that he likes her.

"dude. quit with the PDA." james says, making gagging noises at them.

"if you want to be so judgy, why don't you go?" elaina asks him.

"gladly." james agrees, turning to the two boys sitting on the two-cushioned couch with him. more specifically, james points at nick, not knowing his name. "you. truth or dare, dude?"

"my name is nick." he tells him. "and i pick truth."

"truth? seriously?" james groans. "boring but fine. i have a question for you, my dude." he smiles at nick menacingly before he asks, "are you gay?"

"excuse me?" nick says, his eyes widening in utter shock at the invasive question he was just asked.

"it's just a question, dude, are you gay or not?"

"why would you even ask me that?"

"well, dude, you kind of look gay." james tells him with a shrug.

even though nick is very proud of who he is, it's never fun to hear someone treat you differently due to your sexuality. his entire mood immediately declines. everyone in the room can instantly tell that the question makes nick uncomfortable.

"hey! it's none of  your fucking business whether or not he's gay." the other boy on the couch – lucas – jumps into the conversation. "unless you're trying to hit on him."

"huh!?" james shouts, standing up from the couch and gasping dramatically at lucas' accusation. "dude! i'm not fucking gay! i'm not hitting on him! why would you say that!? i'm straight, dude! stir-eight!"

"you're getting really defensive, dude." elaina adds, making james even more irritated at the situation. "only someone who's trying to hide something would get this worked up over a simple question."

"you're the one worked up, dude! i'm not hiding jackshit!" james yells before storming out of the room with a huff.

amelia watches her twin stomp away before she rolls her eyes and says, "we've only asked two questions and someone has already left." she suddenly smiles at her words. "perfect!"

as the game continues, it's basically chris and camille agreeing to every single dare that comes their way; elaina and mia being ignored due to their excessive PDA; amelia blatantly ignoring niola's presence while she flirts with matt; while nick and lucas get to know each other.

"don't let james get to your head." lucas tells nick. "he's just a homophobic asshole. nobody really knows this, but the only thing that can make him back off of a topic is by accusing him of being gay. then, he will always storm away like a toddler throwing a tantrum."

nick laughs, "thanks, dude."

lucas laughs with him, "anytime, dude."

by being surrounded by so many couples, matt and niola feel even more pressured to be touchy. everyone else is kissing and hugging all the time, but all they do is occasionally lean against one another.

niola's stress is heightened due to the alcohol in her system, but she continues to drink more and more and more bottles. as she tries to cover up her emotions, she just gets more stressed than she was before the drink. meanwhile, matt's too busy focusing on the feeling of niola's head on his shoulder to notice how she's clearly getting nauseous from everything happening around her.

she's stressed about needing to be touchy with matt. she's feeling claustrophobic being stuck beside amelia – the girl who ruined her life in middle school. and more than anything, she feels like she needs to vomit. but she knows that she would immediately fall to the ground if she were to stand up. so she just drinks beer to try and bury herself under the feeling of being wasted.

i just want to be numb. she tells herself over and over as she opens another bottle, her hands shaking from the amount of nerves.

"niola." her entire body freezes at the sound of someone saying her name. niola quickly takes a large gulp of the beer before looking to see who called her name. when she follows the voice, she realizes that amelia said her name. "truth or dare?"

niola is silent for a beat too long before she answers, "dare."

"i dare you to kiss matt." amelia says, making niola's heart freeze in her chest. "you guys are the school's most popular couple, but i don't think anyone has seen you guys actually kiss."

"uh, well, i-" niola stammers, hardly able to get a word out of her mouth. she's uncertain if this is due to her drunkness or due to not having an answer.

but the moment niola doesn't respond, matt finally notices all of the signs. he realizes that she's literally trembling. he sees how pale her face has gotten, and how her eyes are darting all around the room anxiously.

"we're not huge fans of PDA, amelia." matt tells her. "we like to keep most details about our relationship private. we simply don't see the point in kissing in public, when we both know we love each other while alone. it's really no big deal."

"well if it's no big deal, prove it." amelia urges.

"do you have some weird kink for watching people make out?" elaina butts in, making amelia roll her eyes. "just leave them alone."

"whatever." amelia gives up. "but if niola is not going to kiss him, she needs to do a truth."

"fine," niola agrees.

"who was your first kiss?" amelia asks, making matt groan at her persistence.

but niola doesn't hesitate to come up with a lie. "my first kiss was actually matthew. it was a few weeks after we started dating. we were at my house, hanging out in the living room. i was nervous because things were moving so fast, but matt said that he understood how i felt. then it just happened. directly afterward, i realized that i had nothing to be scared of."

matt stares at her in shock. the way she told the story was so believable that he feels like he can almost remember that it happened – even though it didn't. nick, chris, and camille are just as shocked by the story, all of them convinced that this did happen and nobody told them.

"now that you've gotten your answer, i want to talk to my girlfriend alone." matt tells amelia, standing up from the couch and taking niola's hands in his. "unless you want to make a big deal out of that as well."

amelia scoffs, ignoring matt completely.

matt pulls niola to her feet. as soon as niola is standing, she feels like her legs are about to give out under her body's weight. just as she's sure that she will fall to the ground, she collapses into matt's arms.

he doesn't say anything, and simply hold her entire weight while walking her to the bathroom. when they get to the bathroom, he opens the door for her and lets her stumble in before him.

"what are we doing in here?" niola asks, looking around at the pretty decorations of the room. "do you need to shit? you could have gone alone."

"what? no, i don't need to shit." matt tells her, confused as to why that's what she immediately assumed. he lowers her onto the floor, making sure that her face is directly beside the toilet as he opens the lid. "you need to throw up."

"huh? no i don't."

"you need some of the alcohol to get out of your system." matt tells her, kneeling down to the floor behind her as he gathers her hair into his hands. "i'll wait in here with you for as long as you need."

"i hate vomit." niola admits, feeling sick to her stomach just at the thought of it. "can we talk about something else and just wait for my body to throw it up?"

"of course." matt says with a smile, making niola's nerves instantly disappear. "what do you want to talk about?"

"i dunno." she admits, tipping her head back to look up at the ceiling. "can i get something off of my chest? i don't want to burden you with my feelings, but if i were you, i would agree. i'll likely never confide in someone like this while sober, so it would be smart for you to take advantage of how delirious i am."

"it wouldn't be right to take advantage of you while you're in such a distressed state." matt says. "but if you need someone to listen to you get a weight off of your chest, i'm always here."

niola's eyes soften at his words, her entire body relaxing in his hold. "i guess i'll be the one to take advantage of my deliriousness. it'll be nice to get this weight off of my chest."

"i'm all ears."

"y'know how i said that my dad always gambles away my mom's money?" niola asks, matt nodding in response. "that's not the only thing that makes him such an asshole. he uses the money he makes at the casino to buy drunks and alcohol. then, he gets wasted to the point he isn't himself anymore. and he, uh-" niola's breath shakes as she continues to speak.

"you don't have to continue if you don't feel comfortable." matt tells her, but niola shakes her head.

"when he gets like that, he becomes easily irritable. anything we do makes him act out in a violent way. normally, he takes his anger out on my mother by hitting her. but since she's been so busy working, he's started to hit me." niola says. "but i've been at school and at your house so often that i'm scared that the next time he comes home, i wont be there and he'll take it out on rayne." niola says, tears beginning to form along her waterline. "i don't give a shit if he hurts me, but i don't want him to lay a finger on my baby sister. she's a baby! she doesn't deserve to go through that."

matt has to force himself not to literally start fuming with anger. imagining anyone laying a hand on niola makes his blood boil, regardless of whether or not their family to her. she's such a special person. anyone who can't see that is blind.

"hey," matt says, making niola look up at him through teary eyes. "if you guys ever need a place to stay, our door is always open."

niola turns comepletely around and hugs him tightly. she squeezes her arms around the back of his near, burrowing her head between his collar and jaw. she's needed a hug like this for so long that she instantly starts crying when matt wraps his arms around her in return. he rubs his hand up and down her back, assuring her that everything will be okay.

despite being on the dirty bathroom floor, nothing could be more perfect than the feeling of them being in each other's arms.

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a/n : it may have been hard to try to follow all of those new characters in the beginning, but i promise some of them are important later on (others don't matter at all after this chapter) but they all of them were needed for the plot of this chap
anyway i love you guys 🤭
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